History of Vietnam

Vietnam began its history as a part of the French colony of Indochina. During World War II the country was occupied by the Japanese. As a result of the Japanese defeat in 1945, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed. In 1946 according to The Geneva Agreement temporary partition of North and South took place. Only ten years later they were re-unified. In 1962 the war between the southern, the northern Vietnam Army and their backers in China and the Soviet Union on one side, and the Americans and the ARVN (the South Vietnamese army) on the other side began. The victory of the Communist forces stimulated the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. As for the Vietnamese economy it suffered greatly from the withdrawal of the subsidized goods from the former USSR and from Eastern Europe. Reforms have resulted in rapid economic growth in the last decade.